Rifle fire pierced the air as sergeants Alfred Cleall and Charles Gibbs set upon the oncoming German troops, ammunition fast exchanging from their comrades’ hands to theirs.

Alf with his Bath Rugby Football Club teammates. He can be seen in the centre holding a rugby ball

The men were in the thick of the First Battle of Ypres, defending the British trenches against an onslaught by their enemy.

Alfred, known as Alf, had only been in the Western Front for five days when a bullet struck his throat.

The 40-year-old’s body was later lost or destroyed amid the bloodshed and his wife and one-year-old daughter were forever denied the chance to say goodbye.

Now Alf’s great-great nephew Alan Simpson, 55, of Ravensbourne Gardens, Clayhall, has shared his story to mark the centenary of the First World War.

Alan Simpson holding (replica) medals which were awarded to his great-great uncle Alf, who died during the First World War

Alf was born in 1873 in Leominster, Herefordshire, but his family settled in Bath after his father died a few years later.

Alf, who had five sisters and four brothers, worked as a printer’s apprentice before joining the Dorset Regiment of the Army in the 1890s, serving in India and then fighting in South Africa during the Second Boer War.

Alan said: “While in India he was held in a military prison for 84 days, for striking an officer.